Internship

What year are you?

 

you're pretty late to the game, most firms have already hired their summer interns. Try searching up some local boutique firms and cold-call, and try to network as much as you can through alumni. Not much you can do now but hope you have some connections.

 

dont restrict yourself to finance only. Just getting your foot in the door is what's important.

 

Go to career services at your school, they helped me out a bunch.

 

Yes, go to your career services at your college.

Look around at many different companies. If it is a summer internship, then look at companies in different cities as well.

Do not limit yourself to just finance internships. Something is better than nothing. I had no interest in Marketing but did a marketing internship in college...turns out it was a big factor in me landing my first job out of college that has nothing to do with marketing !!

 

^
Why are people always so shocked when you recommend that you physically go somewhere and talk to someone face to face?

 

Yes. I promise they won't bite.

 

You need to look at opportunities in every single business major, and look at some retail buyer and assistant manager positions, because YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET ANY FINANCE JOBS AFTER COLLEGE.

You're not getting a finance internship, and you're probably not getting any finance full-time jobs either next year. Also, when you try to apply for finance gigs five years from now, you'll be less favorable than people with finance experience, and high-performing students right out of school; who can learn everything you've been studying in a couple of years.

Be prepared to accept Accounting Clerk positions, or really any kind of corporate desk job, and then just start working on a JD, CFA, second bachelor's in Accounting, an MBA.

My first recommendation would be to work FOR FREE for some RETAIL BROKER or Insurance Salesman, and let him know that you understand that it's NOT investment banking; and that you're just as interested in sales as you are in finance.

Talk to accounting staffing companies like AccountPros or Accountants on Call. Also, go to the Houston Business Journal website and find a link for a Book of Lists, which is a book full of rankings of the largest companies in Houston.

Also a good idea to consider being a teller and getting in on the ground floor, tellers get the first crack at Personal Banker and then Branch Management positions.

 

The naivety of youth. Of course there is a chance but you have to realize and understand the situation as a whole and not be so narrow minded.

Obviously you are scrambling and getting desperate. Sure, keep trying for finance but you really have no idea how the real work force is, especially concerning finance. It's a diluted field because everyone and their dog takes finance thinking its an automatic path to making money.

More than likely you will have to earn your stripes getting there.

 

I think he's being realistic and gave you some pretty good advice.

Do you intend to pursue a CFA?

 

You don't understand the disproportionate number of people applying for finance jobs. It's not just the business guys, it's any non-technical major who still wants to make money and have a decent job. As an undergrad finance major with an uncompetitive profile, you're literally the least qualified person possible; because you don't really know anything other than some generic pricing models, and they can and will train the relevant subset of those to anyone with better grades from a better school than you.

You're not a Marketing guy, so you probably can't sell; and you're not in Accounting, so - get this - you probably don't know jack **** about financial analysis. And don't even think about salaried trading or fund jobs: at the outset, every single Economics, Comp Sci and Math grad is more qualified for a salaried asset management position than you are; and throw in all the engineers once you realize you should be looking at the energy industry.

 

Very true. And I hate to pile on the poor chap but it's something that needs to be realized. A finance degree means very little in the scheme of things. It's a tweeter category. Not as fully comprehensive as economics and not as detailed oriented as accounting. It's a romantic sounding degree that, standing alone, means very little.

That's really not a knock on the OP, it's just how it is and it doesn't mean that one can't do well. It just means that when entering a work force you have realize that "finance" isn't really something that you start right out in without some experience and/or an advanced/specialized degree

 

you're flat out of luck for the majors, super day was over like ages ago.

Look for hedge funds, boutique funds. Consider just working as a teller in a bank, or in something related to sales/trading/corporate marketing.

 

Don't discount accounting, for your own sake. Yes it's not probably what you want to do in the long run but it's an area where you can really learn the guts of a business. It's not all journal entires and debits/credits. You have to build a foundation and you cannot understand financials accurately if you don't understand the accounting. I hated accounting classes but I have to admit that I did learn a lot while being in an accounting position.

I once told a controller of a large firm that I wasn't too keen on accounting. We were actually at a rockets game...I said I wanted to " play the game" as it relates to finance. He told me that " if you want to play the game, you have to know how they keep score or else you wont know who's winning".

That little phrase has always stuck with me.